Slanty letters . . .

[Wilson Gray]

Why dumb things down? Why not simply educate people, instead?

-Wilson

On 4/13/06, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Slanty letters . . .
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> To carry Jonathan's recounting (of the M.D. who did not know
> the term "italics") a step farther:
>
> A few years ago a policeman neighbor of mine (probably in
> his late 30's) was taking a freshman English course by
> correspondence.  He came over to my house to consult with me
> about a particular workbook exercise, which called for
> identifying the parts of speech of the "italicized words"
> (so-designated) in some sentences.  Not only was my neighbor
> unfamiliar the term "italicized"; he was unable visually to
> detect which words looked different from the others
> (more "slanty").
>
> There's a lesson there for workbook-makers.  Old-fashioned
> underlining has its uses!
>
> --Charlie
>
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 08:16:18 -0700
> >From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> >Subject: Re: Has it truly come to this?
> >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> >Yes.  (I believe I mentioned last year the experienced M.D.
> of my acquaintance who was unfamiliar with the
> word "italics."  He called them "slanty letters" and was
> impressed that I had a big word for them.)
> >
>
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